


The cat is out of the bag

by 28sunflowers



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Witchcraft, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Attempt at Humor, Cat Harry Styles, Fluff and Humor, Light Angst, M/M, Potions Accident, So light that if you blink you miss it, Witch Harry Styles, but in my head it's a Happy Ending, he turns into an actual cat okay? this is not a hybrid fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-24
Updated: 2020-10-24
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:49:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27180665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/28sunflowers/pseuds/28sunflowers
Summary: Harry somehow gets himself stuck as a black cat on Halloween and needs help from Louis to change back into his human form.The problem is: Louis doesn’t even know witches exist, much less that Harry is one. And there’s also the fact he thinks Harry is ghosting him after they had sex for the first time.So the situations isn’t ideal. But it’s okay. Harry will figure something out.
Relationships: Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson
Comments: 38
Kudos: 261
Collections: Larrie Writers GC Challenge 1: Autumn/Halloween/Horror





	The cat is out of the bag

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you, [Angel](https://goldencerise.tumblr.com/), for beta-ing this for me. You're a sweetheart ♥
> 
> And once again, thank you to my darling [Lu](https://wallsbylouis.tumblr.com/) for the ideas, support and fic post. I looove you. 
> 
> This was written for the (informal) challenge between the wonderful members of the writers group chat I'm part of. The theme is Autumn/Halloween/Horror and you can check the other fics in it [here](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/LarrieWritersGCChallenge1/)!

Harry always knew he was some level of a disaster gay before, but he really reached a new record of it this time.

It’s Halloween and, even though most myths humans believe in aren’t exactly accurate, one thing they are right about is that magical energy is definitely stronger and harder to control today. The tree that controls the energy flowing through everything has a cycle, reaching its highest thrumming point today and its lowest exactly half a year later.

Of course, Harry being the overly confident dumbass that he is, he decided to try a new spell today, out of all days.

His magic got away from him, exploding in a chaos of accidents until potions started falling off the shelves and somehow mixing together in a way that turned Harry into a cat. Fucking great.

He jumps up the remaining furniture until he finds the book that has a guide on how to turn himself back and paws at it so it lands on the floor. It takes him a while to find the right page, and even longer to figure out a position which allows him to actually see the words, but he gets there.

_From an animal body back to your human form:_

_1) Make a shapeshifting potion._

Fuck him up.

A shapeshifting potion needs to be brewed carefully on a fire. Harry needs assistance from someone with hands. The realization makes him whine out loud in frustration. Who will help him? His coven is all the way back in Holmes Chapel.

Harry regrets all of his life choices, starting when he decided to ask his coven for permission to go to university outside of their territory, earlier in the year. He also had to ask permission to live in another coven’s territory, and, for as easily as they granted it to him when he explained his reasoning, they weren’t exactly receptive. So Harry doesn’t trust them enough to show up at their doorstep as a cat. What would he even say? Sorry I was being reckless on Halloween, like we’re taught not to do on the first day of witchcraft class when we’re five?

They might do even worse things to him and his own coven would be none the wiser. They could just tell them he got himself killed being an idiot and they wouldn’t even be lying. And in a best-case scenario, they’d help him but deem him unfit to live by himself and send him back home.

No. He needs another solution.

His phone buzzes repeatedly where it fell on the floor and Harry goes to check it. He watches as messages from Louis appear on the screen.

Louis!

The trip to his house isn’t that long, Harry should be able to do it in fifteen minutes as a cat. He doesn’t know how he will convince Louis to help him, because as far as he is aware Louis doesn’t even know witches exist, but he will figure it out. It’s his best option so far.

At the very least, Louis will probably feed him or something. He’s too sweet to turn away a lost cat meowing at his door. And Harry doesn’t know how to open his fridge as a cat, so he needs someone willing to give him some food.

He looks around and is grateful to see that his window is open enough that he’s able to jump out of his flat. He doesn’t know if he’d be able to unlock his front door.

With a hopeful breath, Harry starts making his way to Louis’.

When Harry gets to Louis’ house, he sits on the doorstep until the other man finally comes home. It’s early morning and he’s slightly drunk, so Harry guesses he was at one of the university’s Halloween parties.

“Oh my god,” Louis startles when Harry moves, clearly not seeing him before. He watches Harry warily for a few long seconds, before deciding Harry is no harm, “a fucking black cat on Halloween, how original.”

Harry didn’t make that connection before. Good for Louis.

It explains why no one else bothered him on the way here. Nonsensical human superstitions.

He meows softly and rubs himself against Louis’ ankles as the man fumbles to get the door unlocked, hoping to get some sympathy from the man.

He gets chastised, “no, kitty. I have a dog. You can’t come in.”

If Harry could, he’d roll his eyes. He isn’t scared of Clifford. He resorts to meowing more desperately and pawing at the door.

“Shit,” Louis seems indecisive, “it’s not that I don’t want to, cutie...”

He trails off, looking at Harry pensively. A few more seconds go by and he lets out a resigned sigh, “alright, this is how it’s gonna work: I’ll hold you up so Clifford can’t get to you. If you two are friendly, I’ll let you roam free. If not, you’re locked in the guest room until morning.”

Harry rubs his face against Louis’ shin in agreement. Louis seems to get the message, because he bends down to take Harry into his arms. He holds Harry close to his chest, so Harry cuddles closer.

Things are working out fine so far.

🐾🐾🐾

The next morning, Harry lazily lays on a patch of sun in Louis’ living room while Clifford plays in the backyard and Louis is in the kitchen making himself a cup of tea.

Harry can hear him on the phone.

_Yeah, Zayn, he just showed up at my doorstep and basically begged to be let in. I left the windows open all day in case he decides to go back where he’s from, but he seems awfully cozy in here._

_I can’t do that._

_Because I have a dog, remember?_

_No, they’re actually really friendly. But –_

_Alright, but I’ll have to buy a litter box and food and a collar, probably take him to the vet to check for vermin and give him shots... it’s expensive, Zayn. I don’t know if I can afford that right now._

_Yeah, sounds good. I’ll make the stories soon and you share it, you have a lot more followers than me._

_Will he be fine eating human food for a few days, do you think?_

_Oh, that’s good, I’ll text Liam now._

_Yeah, yeah. Thanks mate. Talk to you soon, yeah. Bye._

Harry doesn’t open his eyes but he can hear Louis walking in his direction, stopping directly in front of him. He only bothers to check what’s happening when he hears a camera shutter click a few times.

Louis is smiling softly, but Harry is unamused as Louis pokes him, “hey, kitty, can you stand or sit up for me? I need some good shots so your owner can recognize you. They must be worried.”

Harry stays still. Louis is wonderful for trying, really, but he will never find Harry’s owner. Said owner doesn’t exist. The sooner he gets that, the better.

When Louis sighs frustratedly, Harry decides to actively do something about the situation he’s in. He climbs the shelf where Louis keeps his board games and pushes scrabble out, making the box fall and pieces scatter across the floor.

Perfect.

Before he can get down and use the letters to communicate with Louis, though, the man is taking him from the shelf and holding him tightly in his arms.

“Bad, kitty,” he gets scolded, “why did you do that, huh? Now I have to clean up this mess.”

Harry tries pawing his way free from Louis to get to the pieces, but Louis’ hold is too strong for him. He goes for a different strategy: licking Louis’ arms.

“Yea, yea, you’re sorry, I know,” Louis pets him on the head, “I can’t stay mad with such a cutie.”

Louis puts him on the floor and drops down to his knees to collect the pieces. He works quickly, so Harry rushes straight for the first H he finds. But he’s only gotten H A R done before Louis finishes.

He finds Harry with the three pieces, “helping me clean up, huh?”

Louis doesn’t spare Harry’s works a second glance, taking the three pieces and putting them back in the box.

Harry hisses angrily and stalks away, leaving a dumbfounded Louis behind. Stupid human. Harry will find another way to communicate.

Louis leaves to buy groceries later that day and Harry uses the opportunity to try and find a new way to talk to Louis. The man closed the scrabble box tightly so Harry can’t get to the smaller pieces again, making Harry’s life a bit harder. He wishes he could just spell out I M H A R R Y H E L P M E, but Louis isn’t collaborating with his ideas.

He turns on the tv, grateful that at least he can work the remote. Harry initially wants some entertaining background noise, so he just absently passes through channels, but then he stumbles upon a Harry Potter marathon on Warner. That can be used to try and get some sense into Louis’ head. So Harry leaves it on as he goes to look around the house until the man comes back.

“Am I going crazy or was the tv turned off when I left?” Louis asks in confusion as he walks into the flat and notices the movie playing.

Harry hurries to lay in front of the sensor so he can’t turn it off or change channels. Louis sighs defeatedly, “fine, you watch Harry Potter while I put the groceries away.”

Harry meows loudly, but it doesn’t get Louis’ attention. He lays back down and waits till the other man comes back.

However, his plan of making noise whenever Harry Potter is on the screen, to try to clue Louis in to the fact his name is also Harry, goes downhill when the man takes him from the tv rack and plops him down on his lap.

He immediately changes to a football match and Harry huffs annoyedly. But before he can get too upset, Louis starts petting his tummy.

It’s hard not to lay there and purr, so he can’t be blamed for doing just that.

“There you go, good kitty,” Louis praises him, “this is much better than Harry Potter, anyways. Harry is a stupid name for stupid curly-haired assholes.”

Harry looks up in interest. Is Louis angry at his human form?

Louis relaxes into the couch, looking pensive and kind of sad. Harry frowns internally.

“You know, kitty,” he starts, and Harry pays attention, “I was seeing a great guy for a few weeks now, thought it was going well, you know? But then we had sex two days ago and now he’s been ghosting me ever since. I don’t know what to feel. At first, I was angry, but now I’m kind of sad. Can’t help but think he didn’t like the sex. And what’s worse is that I actually really liked it! I thought we were very compatible. But apparently not. I’m such an idiot.”

Louis sniffs quietly and Harry worries he might be crying. He stands up abruptly and cuddles closer to Louis’ chest, trying to offer some comfort. Harry didn’t even think about the fact he hasn’t replied to Louis’ texts, he hasn’t taken the time to consider how he must feel. He forgot only he knows that he’s been spending all his time in Louis’ house with him.

“Oh, you’re so sweet, aren’t you?” Louis starts petting him with more intent and Harry’s purr deepens, “instead of Harry, I have you now. I reckon it’s a good exchange.”

Harry resigns himself to waiting things out for a bit.

🐾🐾🐾

Louis doesn’t seem to be hopeful about finding Harry’s supposed owner anymore and his talks of putting him up for adoption don’t sound convincing. Harry figures it’s just a matter of time before he can find the right time to make Louis follow him out of the house and towards Harry’s own flat. Showing him what happened will be easier.

A few days later, Louis doesn’t wake up early to his blasting alarm clock, so Harry figures it’s his day off work.

Great day to implement his plans.

“Did you get into my room again, kitty?” Louis pushes Harry off of his comfortable spot on his bum. Rude.

When Louis is done with breakfast and says he’ll go downstairs to check the mail, Harry starts on his plan. As soon as the door opens, he’s bolting outside and running down the street.

“Kitty!” Louis calls out to him, swearing to himself before closing the door behind him and following Harry on the pavement.

Harry waits until he’s almost caught up to dart forward again, so Louis is always within arm’s reach.

Louis is clearly pissed off and running out of breath, but they eventually get to Harry’s apartment building. When Harry gets to his apartment, he sits on the mat waiting for Louis to catch up to him, breathing even harder due to the two sets of stairs.

“What the fuck?” He asks in between harsh breaths, “this is Harry’s building.”

Harry would roll his eyes if he could. Louis is truly clueless.

Harry jumps up the big vase by the door and digs through the dirt until he finds his extra set of keys. Louis watches him with wide eyes through the whole process. When realization hits him to what Harry is showing him, he looks even more surprised.

“I can’t just walk into a random flat, kitty,” he splutters, “how did you even know that? What the fuck?”

Harry jumps down and starts pawing at the door, meowing loudly.

Louis looks uncertainly at the keys, but curiosity gets the best of him. He mutters a “fuck it” and takes them. He unlocks the door and, as soon as there’s a sliver of space, Harry’s making his way to the living room.

All the potions on the floor are stinking and he wrinkles his nose at the foul smell. It will take ages to get it off his flat.

He’s making his way through the mess when he realizes Louis hasn’t made a sound. Turning around, he sees Louis frozen by the door, looking slightly scared.

Harry meows to get his attention, and it works. Louis breaks out of his reverie and walks slowly into the room, watching everything skeptically.

“What happened here?” Louis whispers to himself before turning to Harry, “be careful, kitty, there’s a lot of broken glass on the floor.”

Louis is making a round around the living room when Harry finds the book, opened on the right page, just where he left it.

He hears a gasp and looks over to Louis taking Harry’s phone from the floor, probably dead. Harry can see Louis recognizing whose phone it is by the case, and then fear slips back into his expression.

The poor human, he must be so worried. Harry can feel him freaking out from the other side of the room. So stupid. Harry wants to marry him someday.

Harry makes a fuss to bring Louis’ attention to the book and take him out of his misery already.

Louis squats down in front of the book and reads out loud “from an animal body back to your human form.”

“What the fuck?” He looks puzzled.

Harry paws at the phone on Louis’ hand and then at the book again, meowing meaningfully. Or as meaningfully as he can manage.

“Are you telling me you are Harry, kitty?”

Harry meows again and rubs his head on Louis’ knee. Good human, he’s figuring it out.

“This is crazy,” Louis shakes his head, “am I going crazy? This isn’t possible.”

Harry whines loudly. C’mon, they are so close! Louis can’t decide he doesn’t want to believe in magic now.

“Alright, alright,” Louis looks around for a few seconds before sighing resignedly, “I’ll try it, for my peace of mind. I’ll go find a charger for Harry’s phone first.”

Louis leaves for a minute and comes back with a charger, plugging Harry’s phone by the TV.

He comes back to the book, “one: make a shapeshifting potion. Alright. Great. A potion. Magic is real. How the fuck do I do that?”

Harry quickly jumps onto his shelves and pushes out the potions book.

Louis looks inquisitively, “okay, thanks.”

He takes the fallen book and flips through it, eventually finding the right page. “Here it is! Shapeshifting potion. Ingredients: water, salt, lilac grass, femur of a frog, selkie hair, DNA sample. Do you have those things around, by any chance?”

Harry wishes he could scoff at the question. Of course he does! What kind of witch does Louis think he is?

He takes Louis to the kitchen and sits right under his witchcraft supplies’ cabinet. Louis cautiously opens it, then releases a breath when he sees a bunch of glass jars.

Silly human.

He rummages around, looking for the labels he needs while Harry sits and watches. After a few minutes, there are three jars on the counter: lilac grass, frog femur and selkie hair. Louis opens the cabinet under the stove and finds a pan and the salt.

“Alright, let’s get this show on the road,” Louis takes the book again, “it says here that I need to boil the water with salt, lilac grass and femur of a frog for ten minutes. Then add the selkie hair and let it boil for another minute. Turn it off and add the DNA sample. Sounds simple enough.”

He starts going through the motions, and Harry is impressed by how much care he’s giving to following the instructions thoroughly. It’s important, but Louis didn’t necessarily know that. Harry is truly happy when Louis actually times the minutes on his phone.

Exactly eleven minutes later, Louis takes a few hairs from Harry and drops it on the pan. He jumps back when it smokes but recovers quickly. The water is now a deep purple, no more bits on it. Everything melted and became one.

“Well, looks gross,” Louis comments, “but you’re the one who has to drink it, probably.”

Maybe he has. Harry didn’t read past the first step in the spell book.

He jumps off the counter and Louis follows him back to the living room.

“Oh, yeah, forgot there’s more to it than just the potion,” he comments, picking up the other book, “well, first step is done. Two: draw a circle around the human in animal form with fae ash. Three: repeat _iterum sumam formam humanum in medio_ five times as the human in animal form drinks the shapeshifting potion. That’s it.”

Louis looks back at Harry animatedly, “back to the kitchen we go.”

As Harry settles himself on the counter again, Louis opens a few drawers before he finds the one with a ladle, then scoops a bit of the potion on a bowl and puts it on the counter in front of Harry. Then he starts looking through the jars again to find the fae ash. Once he does, he carefully draws a circle around Harry. He uses more ash than necessary, and Harry vaguely thinks he should restock soon, but he won’t complain when Louis is doing so well.

“Done,” Louis looks at his work, assessing it carefully. He nods to himself in satisfaction after a few seconds, then turns back to the book, “I have no clue what language this is and I hope pronunciation doesn’t affect things.”

It does, but Harry is hopeful that Louis won’t be too bad. Harry looks at him, savoring the fact he’s a cat and the relationship he cultivated with Louis this past week for a few more seconds.

Louis takes a deep breath, then starts chanting the spell. Harry wastes no time and starts lapping at the potion, that tastes vaguely of grass and not at all as bad as he thought it would.

By Louis’ third chant, Harry starts tingling, so he figures everything is working out just fine. By the fifth, it’s hard to keep drinking with the energy he can feel coming out of his own body. When Louis finishes the last word, Harry blacks out.

He comes back to himself with Louis looking down at him worriedly. Harry looks around a bit and realizes he’s on the kitchen floor. Nice. He looks back up at Louis and the man is now less worried, expression going through multiple emotions. Harry’s head is too heavy for him to pinpoint any of them.

“Hey,” he tries, but it comes out raspy and broken.

Louis disappears from his eyesight for a bit, but quickly comes back with a glass of water. He sits down on the floor next to Harry and holds his head up, bringing the cup to his lips, “here, drink some.”

Harry does, enjoying the feeling of the cool water on his throat.

He drinks half a glass before pushing Louis’ hand away, “thanks.”

“It’s alright,” Louis gives him a curious smile. He clearly has many questions but is holding back from overwhelming Harry.

Harry really hit the jackpot with him.

“So, the cat is out of the bag, huh?”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading ♥
> 
> 🎃 Happy Halloween!  
> 🔮 Trick and treat me with some kudos and comments  
> 🐾 Here's the fic's [tumblr post](https://vintageumbroshirt.tumblr.com/post/632890853788205056/the-cat-is-out-of-the-bag-35k-g-by) if you wanna check it out there


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